DDastardly00

so excuse me, they themselves said that they had been working for a long time, if they had nothing to show at the same time, it means that they were at least not completely frank.
when there is a "new era" went into full production? August 2018? Look, almost a year has passed since then, and they still have nothing to show?

And the Zoo game is coming in November, so they CAN reveal it. Elite 'new era'? Going by precedent, it's probably a way off before the big reveal, but perhaps hints and teasers somewhere along the way, lavecon perhaps.

To early? Why? It's not that like nine out of ten games announced at E3 will be released somewhere in 2020.
Fdev wouldn't have to spread out the whole shebang, some snippets here and there would go a long way imho.

But hey, it's Fdev, we ought to know by now how their communication or lack thereof works.

Chances are, the stuff they’re working on right now is the unglamorous, unsexy, but oh-so vital stuff they need to build on. Database redesigns, Cobra Engine mods, that sort of thing. Once that lot’s done, then they can work on the sexy stuff, as well as having a much better idea of what is and isn’t possible. Then they can start to reveal stuff if they choose.

“We’re working hard on the next major expansion, and to that end we’ve upgraded all our MySQL systems to version 8 and deactivated binary logging!”

To me they are in contradiction when they say that they will tell us when they know exactly.
Last year they moved from pre-production to full production.
So they for sure know what they are going to release and after a year of full production if they still don't know... uh oh...

First option: what they have in mind is so big that they still don't know if they can make it. So best case we're gonna have a complete new game (atmo planets and legs), worst case we have another year of free small update (see Beyond). Middle case they will release only a part of it, the rest will be released for free one or two years later together with a lot of other things that no one cares (see Horizons).

Second option: last year they didn't go in full production and that was a lie. They started now (see the new job opportunities) and they still don't know how much they can release next year. They have a bunch of ideas but not a final plan.

Third option: MARKETING. Frontier is spreading info here and there to keep high the attention of the community but at the same time they say nothing because they also need to catch new customers at the right time. So they exactly know what they will release with few options not still confirmed. They will not tell until day X and they know when that is. They only have one shot in the gun and they don't want to waste it.

To me they are in contradiction when they say that they will tell us when they know exactly.
Last year they moved from pre-production to full production.
So they for sure know what they are going to release and after a year of full production if they still don't know... uh oh...

First option: what they have in mind is so big that they still don't know if they can make it. So best case we're gonna have a complete new game (atmo planets and legs), worst case we have another year of free small update (see Beyond). Middle case they will release only a part of it, the rest will be released for free one or two years later together with a lot of other things that no one cares (see Horizons).

Second option: last year they didn't go in full production and that was a lie. They started now (see the new job opportunities) and they still don't know how much they can release next year. They have a bunch of ideas but not a final plan.

Third option: MARKETING. Frontier is spreading info here and there to keep high the attention of the community but at the same time they say nothing because they also need to catch new customers at the right time. So they exactly know what they will release with few options not still confirmed. They will not tell until day X and they know when that is. They only have one shot in the gun and they don't want to waste it.

Oh, I would really like it to be the third option. but, why I’m sure that it’s still option 2 in the spring of 2020, the frontiers will say, we started developing a new era in September 2019, wait until 2021-2022 and everything will be fine. and no, we are not going to tell you anything until the autumn of 2021.

At least for as long as the money-train keeps rolling and all "(quote) You don't need a spreadsheet to play this Game(tm)" mandatory 3rd party sites/services are up and play along.
Rest assured though, as soon as any of above starts stalling, they're quick to react and start talking. Very, very quick.

In a sense, you could say "no news is good news" with Frontier.
It just doesn't do alot for Player retention or motivated Store shopping sprees in the long run.
No point in telling them though, it's been tried to make them change things and keep its (sometimes surprisingly) loyal Player base informed in a normal, transparent way.
Their management just doesn't like that. Not one bit. Don't ask why, doesn't make any sense. They're just weird like that